Jack Reacher, alone, strolling nowhere. A Chicago street in bright sunshine. A young woman, struggling on crutches. He offers her a steadying arm. And turns to see a handgun aimed at his stomach. Chained in a dark van racing across America, Reacher doesn't know why they've been kidnapped. The woman claims to be FBI. She's certainly tough enough. But at their remote destination, will raw courage be enough to overcome the hopeless odds?

Killing Floor: Jack Reacher 1

Jack Reacher jumps off a bus and walks fourteen miles down a country road into Margrave, Georgia. An arbitrary decision he's about to regret. Reacher is the only stranger in town on the day they have had their first homicide in 30 years. The cops arrest Reacher and the police chief turns eyewitness to place him at the scene. As nasty secrets leak out, and the body count mounts, one thing is for sure: They picked the wrong guy to take the fall.

The Visitor: Jack Reacher 4

Sergeant Amy Callan and Lieutenant Caroline Cooke have a lot in common. Both were army high-flyers. Both were acquainted with Jack Reacher. Both were forced to resign from the service. Now they're both dead. Found in their own homes, naked, in a bath full of paint. Apparent victims of an army man. A loner, a smart guy with a score to settle, a ruthless vigilante. A man just like Jack Reacher.

Echo Burning: Jack Reacher 5

Jack Reacher, adrift in the hellish heat of a Texas summer. Looking for a lift through the vast empty landscape. A woman stops, and offers a ride. She is young, rich and beautiful. But her husband's in jail. When he comes out, he's going to kill her. Her family's hostile, she can't trust the cops, and the lawyers won't help. She is entangled in a web of lies and prejudice, hatred and murder.J ack Reacher never could resist a lady in distress.

Persuader: Jack Reacher 7

Jack Reacher lives for the moment. Without a home. Without commitment. But he has a burning desire to right wrongs - and rewrite his own agonizing past. When Reacher witnesses a brutal kidnap attempt, he takes the law into his own hands. But a cop dies. Has Reacher lost his sense of right and wrong?

One Shot: Jack Reacher 9

A public plaza in Indiana. Five people are killed in cold blood, shot through the head. But he leaves a perfect trail of evidence behind him, and soon the local police chief tracks him down. After his arrest, the shooter's only words are, 'Get Jack Reacher for me.' What could possibly connect this psychopath and the wandering dropout ex army cop?Critics call Lee Child's thriller series 'addictive', so here is our annual, much-longed for, Reacher fix.

The Hard Way: Jack Reacher 10

Late at night in a New York café army-cop-turned-drifter Jack Reacher orders coffee in a cup made of foam, not china, so that he can move on at a moment’s notice.He owns nothing, carries less, has never encountered a female colleague he can’t bed, or a case he can’t solve.But now Reacher is confronted by a situation so disturbing and deceptive that the truth eludes him.Has he painted targets on the good guys’ backs?So Reacher starts over at square one. He sweats the details and works the clues.

Nothing to Lose: Jack Reacher 12

Two small towns in Colorado: Hope and Despair. Between them, nothing but twelve miles of empty road. Jack Reacher can't find a ride, so he walks. All he wants is a cup of coffee. What he gets are four redneck deputies who want to run him out of town. Mistake. They're picking on the wrong guy. Jack Reacher is a big man, and he's in shape. No job, no address, no baggage. Nothing, except bloody-minded curiosity. What is the secret the locals seem so keen to hide?

Bad Luck and Trouble: Jack Reacher 11

You DO NOT MESS with the Special Investigators!The events of 9/11 changed Jack Reacher’s drifter life in a practical way. In addition to his folding toothbrush, he now needs to carry photo ID to get around. Yet he is still as close to untraceable as a human being in America can get. So when a member of his old Army unit manages to get a message to him, he knows it has to be deadly serious. The Special Investigators always watched each other’s backs. Now Reacher must put the old unit back together

Gone Tomorrow: Jack Reacher 13

Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs, mostly because they're nervous. By definition they're all first-timers. Riding the subway in New York at 2:00 in the morning, Reacher knows the 12 giveaway signs to look out for. Watching one of his fellow passengers, he becomes sharply aware: one by one, she ticks off every bulletpoint on his list.

The Affair: Jack Reacher 16

March 1997. A woman has her throat cut behind a bar in Carter Crossing, Mississippi. Just down the road is a big army base.Is the murderer a local guy - or is he a soldier?Jack Reacher, still a major in the military police, is sent in undercover. The county sheriff is a former U.S. Marine - and a stunningly beautiful woman. Her investigation is going nowhere. Is the Pentagon stonewalling her? Or doesn't she really want to find the killer? The adrenaline-pumping, high-voltage action in The Affair is set just six months before the opening of Killing Floor....

Never Go Back: Jack Reacher 18

After an epic and interrupted journey all the way from the snows of South Dakota, Jack Reacher has finally made it to Virginia. His destination: a sturdy stone building a short bus ride from Washington D.C., the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP. It was the closest thing to a home he ever had. Why? He wants to meet the new commanding officer, Major Susan Turner. He liked her voice on the phone. But the officer sitting behind Reacher’s old desk isn't a woman. Why is Susan Turner not there? What Reacher doesn’t expect is what comes next.

Worth Dying For: Jack Reacher 15

There’s deadly trouble in the wilds of Nebraska… and Reacher walks right into it. First he falls foul of the Duncans, a local clan that has terrified an entire county into submission. But it’s the unsolved case of a missing eight-year-old girl, already decades-old, that Reacher can’t let go.

61 Hours: Jack Reacher 14

Winter in South Dakota. Blowing snow, icy roads, a tired driver. A bus skids and crashes and is stranded in a gathering storm. There's a small town twenty miles away, where a vulnerable witness is guarded around the clock. There's a strange stone building five miles further on, all alone on the prairie. There's a ruthless man who controls everything from the warmth of Mexico....

A Wanted Man: Jack Reacher 17

When you're as big and rough as Jack Reacher - and you have a badly-set, freshly-busted nose patched with silver duct tape - it isn't easy to hitch a ride. But Reacher has some unfinished business in Virginia, so he doesn't quit. And at last, he's picked up by three strangers - two men and a woman. But within minutes it becomes clear they're all lying about everything - and then they run into a police roadblock on the highway. There has been an incident, and the cops are looking for the bad guys....

Personal

Jack Reacher walks alone. Once a go-to hard man in the US military police, now he’s a drifter of no fixed abode. But the army tracks him down. Because someone has taken a long-range shot at the French president. Only one man could have done it. And Reacher is the one man who can find him. This new heartstopping, nailbiting book in Lee Child’s number-one best-selling series takes Reacher across the Atlantic to Paris - and then to London.

The Target

The mission is to enter one of the most dangerous countries in the world. The target is one of the toughest to reach. The result could be momentous - or it could be Armageddon. There is no margin for error. US government operatives Will Robie and Jessica Reel have to prove they are still the best team there is. But are they invincible when pitted against an agent whose training has been under conditions where most would perish? An old man is dying in an Alabama prison hospital, it seems there is one more evil game he has still to play. And it's a game which comes close to home for Reel and Robie.

The Hit: Will Robie, Book 2

When government hit man Will Robie is given his next target he knows he’s about to embark on his toughest mission yet. He is tasked with killing one of their own, following evidence to suggest that fellow assassin Jessica Reel has been turned. She’s leaving a trail of death in her wake, including her handler. The trap is set. To send a killer to catch a killer. But what happens when you can’t trust those who have access to the nation’s most secret intelligence?

Memory Man

Amos Decker is a former professional football player whose career was ended by a terrible hit. Now a police detective, Amos is still haunted by a side effect from the accident he can never forget. One night Decker comes home from a stakeout to find his wife, young daughter, and brother-in-law horrifically murdered. Obviously scarred and nearly broken, Decker has to use his skills as a detective and his unusual brain capacity to try to catch the monster who killed his family.

Zero Day: John Puller, Book 1

John Puller is a former war hero and now the best military investigator in the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigative Division. He is a loner with few possessions by preference, but he has an indomitable spirit and an unstoppable determination for finding the truth. His father was the most decorated U.S. Marine in history, but now resides in a nursing home far from his battlefield glory. Puller’s older brother, also a military vet, is serving a life sentence in Leavenworth Penitentiary. Puller is called out to a remote, rural area far from any military outpost to investigate into the brutal murder of a family....

The Gods of Guilt

Mickey Haller gets the text, "Call me ASAP - 187," and the California penal code for murder immediately gets his attention. Murder cases have the highest stakes and the biggest paydays, and they always mean Haller has to be at the top of his game. When Mickey learns that the victim was his own former client, a prostitute he thought he had rescued and put on the straight and narrow path, he knows he is on the hook for this one. He soon finds out that she was back in LA and back in the life. Far from saving her, Mickey may have been the one who put her in danger.

Angels Flight

Harry Bosch finds himself yet again in charge of a case that no one else will touch. This time his job is to nail the killer of hot shot black lawyer Howard Elias. Elias has been found murdered on the eve of going to court on behalf of Michael Harris, a man the LAPD believes guilty of the rape and murder of a twelve-year-old girl. Elias had let it be known that the aim of his civil case was not only to reveal the real killer but to target and bring down the racist cops who beat up his client during a violent interrogation.

Publisher's Summary

Jack Reacher, alone, strolling nowhere. A Chicago street in bright sunshine. A young woman, struggling on crutches. He offers her a steadying arm. And turns to see a handgun aimed at his stomach.

Chained in a dark van racing across America, Reacher doesn't know why they've been kidnapped. The woman claims to be FBI. She's certainly tough enough. But at their remote destination, will raw courage be enough to overcome the hopeless odds?

Where does Die Trying rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Lee Child is a genius at taking all the tropes of an action movie, and of a ridiculously competent action lead, and making them feel believable and grounded. Reacher is somewhere between Rambo and Sherlock Holmes in his ability to work out whats going on and deal with it in the most efficiently violent way possible. What helps the reader suspend their disbelief is that nothing in these books is vague; everything is meticulously explained. But Child doesn't drily regurgitate his research, he writes with a crisp, spare, lively style. The pacing is also excellent, the tension never letting up as we track the movements of the several parties involved. The various mysteries and cliffhangars threading the book are maintained expertly. Child is a master of leaking information to the reader in one subplot just as it will affect them most because of what's going on in the other subplot. The supporting cast are well sketched enough to keep easy track of, and to feel genuinely attached to in many cases. In this outing, Holly Johnson serves as Reacher's point woman, emerging as perhaps more impressive than even Reacher.

Would you recommend Die Trying to your friends? Why or why not?

This is definitely one I'd reccommend unabridged. The plot is ruthlessly lean in any case. I also think action thrillers like this are particularly great for audio. Listening to a Reacher as you get on with your work is like watching a movie without the inconvenience of having to look at a screen. Some books you want to immerse yourself in the lyrical language on the printed page. Listening on audio, you might not get to wallow in the beauty of the descriptions, and the beautifully-crafted lines of dialogue might be coloured by indifferent performances. A Reacher is not a book that you have to worry about this.

What aspect of Johnathan McClain’s performance would you have changed?

John McClain gave a thoroughly creditable performance. His tone was laconic, but engagingly varied (on another Reacher novel the reader's habit of giving every line the exact same intonation began to get to me). McClain's voices for each character were suitable (if a little extreme sometimes - the bad guy sounded like both Mickey Mouse and Michael Jackson at points, and General Garber's overly gruff bark made me burst out laughing), and largely consistent. I did feel McClain got a bit mixed up at a few points and ascribed the wrong voice to a the wrong character, or accidentally carried a character's voice over into his narration. But these were rare instances within a very enjoyable performance.

I literally blasted through the first Jack Reacher audiobook (Killing Floor) and was VERY excited to get stuck into Die Trying. To start, the book was great. It had a really good premise and left me thinking that Child was onto a brilliant plot.

Let's just say that I did not think that again.

The first mistake made with this book is totally beyond Lee Child's powers as an author to stop: changing the narrator. Dick Hill did a great job in the first one and really brought each and every character to life. Jonathan McClain just makes you wish every character was dead. At times his vocals are good, but those times aren't frequent enough. It's his character work that really hurts the piece. Reacher comes across as an arrogant, cocky, annoying guy at times (might just be my being overly critical). Bo sounds like a fat, asthmatic 7 year-old girl who is constantly surprised (could not take him seriously because of this). Several of the other characters voices change in pitch for no reason and a couple even sound like Bo at times.

Back to the story. As I said, it starts off great, but it just goes down hill. The idea of domestic terrorism is great. Shows just what could happen if the government pushes people the wrong way for too long. But some of the things that happen throughout are so far-fetched I was tempted to stop reading. I get that Reacher is a highly trained ex-military...but he seems to be a jack of all trades and master of even more. No military man should be capable of performing every task under the sun as though he had been trained at it for his entire life. I thought at one point 'if he stumbled across a nest of vipers we would suddenly learn he had training in India to be a snake charmer.'

One upside to the book is that it's very informative. As I said above, Reacher has a flawless working knowledge of everything. And he imparts that knowledge.

I did see this book through to the end purely to see if certain characters got what was coming to them and my dislike of leaving something unfinished. Not through any real love for the story like I had with Killing Floor.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Sandra Sadler

1/19/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Very enjoyable"

Nicely read - the reader kept it try and that seemed to fit with the main character. Brilliant story - I'm off to get the next one!

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Tim

Kineton, United Kingdom

1/16/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Love Reacher!!!"

Enjoyed this listen to audible all the time in the car and am really into the Reacher series top job !

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

andrew

9/3/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Poor voice work ruined this for me."

Would you try another book written by Lee Child or narrated by Johnathan McClain?

Lee Child absolutely, but I would not listen to Johnathan McClain again. It was like reading with a small child.

Would you ever listen to anything by Lee Child again?

Yes.

Would you be willing to try another one of Johnathan McClain’s performances?

Never!!

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment but not with the book, just the narrator.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

sharon

Falmouth, United Kingdom

7/15/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"Groan..."

I probably will upset a few fans here - I did not get on at all, yes the premise is superb, but I felt it was like reading an artillery manual, on how to shoot a gun, again and again in painful detail in various formats, not sure whether I can read any more in the series, though I am told that they get better,will have to wait and see.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Miriam

7/5/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"A good read"

Reader was very good book is full of action and runs quite well not giving everything away. Keep you guessing and knowing that around the corner there will be something else coming that you haven't quite expected.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Amazon Customer

7/2/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Starts well but turns into a slog"

I have only read a few of the Jack Reacher series, but this one has been the worst, almost putting me off trying any more! The story starts well with the kidnap, but once the characters arrive at their destination and the wider story is revealed it isn't interesting enough to hold attention, and it unfolds far too slowly. This, coupled with quite annoying voices given to some of the characters by the narrator made it hard to get through to the end.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

kevin

6/27/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Another class novel by Lee child"

Good story line all the usual twists and turns that you can expect from a good writer. well narrated as well.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Churchill1940

ILFORD, United Kingdom

6/21/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Amazing story not to be missed!"

What more can you say but a book never to be missed. Will keep you riveted asking for more.Great story that you just can't put down.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Stuart Mann

6/18/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"As good as ever"

Well read and the usual gripping tale. An enjoyable listen, with convincing voice characterisations. Will be listening to next in series soon.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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